Recently Premiere Paul Mitchell Educator, Barbara
Lhotan, breezed into the HairBoutique.com offices in Dallas, Texas
to do the hair for a photo shoot.

Although Barbara will modestly tell you she is "an
all around" hairdresser don't believe it for one minute. I
have had the privilege of watching Barbara create everything from
breathtaking updos to cutting and styling a wide range of textures.

Some years ago HairBoutique.com's Billy and I were
literally practicing applying extensions and doing braids in
Barbara's hotel room in downtown Dallas when she visited for a show.

I was thrilled at the prospect of watching Barbara
style the hair for our HairBoutique.com models.

The photo shoot took place over a long weekend.
A lot of the work went into the prep for the shoot. First
there was the model call which involved screening a wide range of
women with the type, texture and color of hair Barbara wanted to
style.

After days of phone calls, emails and looking at a
range of photos we narrowed it down to our hand picked models.
After arranging for the models and the make-up artists we had to get
prepared for the actual shoot.

HairBoutique.com's Jeffry Lee Hines who is part time
professional photographer set up the actual photo site in the
HairBoutique.com building. This mean moving furniture around
and setting up camera equipment.

Model Ginny arrived on the second day of the shoot
with clean dried hair. Because her hair was naturally curly,
she applied just a touch of product to keep it from frizzing.
Basically her curls were nestled very close to her head when she
first arrived. I have to admit that I was skeptical about
transforming her curls for the camera but Barbara assured me it
would be "a snap".

Indeed, with a water bottle, some gel and a long
finger diffuser

One topic that is known in the textured hair world
is referred to as Creating A Hair Pineapple or Creating A Pineapple.
Sometimes its referred to simply as Pineappling.

Ponytail Plop

A good friend of mine has been performing this
technique for many years, since she was a teen, but she called it
the Ponytail Plop. In the natural curl communities it is also
known as the Hair Pineapple.

What Is A Hair Pineapple?

Basically a pineapple, the hair kind, not the fruit
kind is just a very high ponytail with a base positioned in the
middle of the head.

The base of the pineapple ponytail is actually
positioned between the hairline and the crown.

When the ponytail is secured in the middle of the
head and then the long textured strands are allowed to cascade from
the base, the back of the head looks like a pineapple. The
curls cascading curls at the top look like leaves at the top of a
pineapple. The hair resembles the leaves.

How To Make A Hair Pineapple?

To be successful with the Hair Pineapple, tresses
must usually be below the shoulders or longer. Ideally the
hair is Bra Strap Length (BSL) meaning it falls just to the top of
where the bra strap is attached to the back of the bra.

If your hair is not long enough to be pulled into a
ponytail near the crown or top of your head, it may not work in the
Pineapple method.

1. Bend your head over at your waist, gather
all of your hair, damp or dry, into your hands and pull a
traditional scrunchie or scunchie around all the hair at the top of
your head to form the base. Although other non-scrunchie
ponytail holders will work, it may leave a dent in the hair.
It's best, when possible, to use a soft scrunchie style ponytail
holder.

2. Once all of the hair has been captured into
a ponytail at the top of your head, bend forward, holding the
ponytail hair in your hands to keep it in place. You don't
want the curls or texture to flop back into a traditional style.
The goal is to keep the curls flowing forward towards the face.

3. Using your fingers, gently separate your
new pony into two equal sections and direct each one on either side
of the scrunchie held base.

4. Keeping all the hair in place apply a
satin, silk or similar style sleep cap. You may wish to also
sleep on a silk or satin pillowcase and if your hair misbehaves you
can clip the ends to your head to hold in place. Keep in mind
when using any type of clips or pins there can be potential next day
wrinkles.

5. Allow the hair pineapple to set overnight.

6. Remove scrunchie by gently pulling over
strands or if desired and the scrunchie is inexpensive you can
always cut if off with a scissors.

7. Use fingers to arrange
curls into desired pattern. Do not brush or comb. Use a
water bottle filled with distilled water and your favorite leave-in
conditioner. If desired you can add additional styling product.

8. Optionally you can touch
up any rebellious ringlets with a curling iron or you can wrap
around your fingers to reform.

Wet Or Dry Pineapple?

Most fans of the Pineapple technique have to find
their own way to perfecting their method. Some naturally
textured people swear by the technique when their hair is wet,
others damp and yet others only pineapple with dry hair which has
been spritzed with a water bottle to keep curls and texture moist.

A hair pineapple can be created to style newly
cleansed hair and allow it to air dry in a plopped or plunked shape
or it can be created on bone dry strands for 2nd or 3rd day
overnight curl styling.

Summary

The key to hair pineapple is to experiment to
customize it to your own naturally textured hair needs. It's
important to remember that not all methods work for all naturally
textured people because everyone's hair is unique and will respond
in kind.